Cities across Kentucky are restricting where and when smokers can light up. The limitations range from strict local bans (indoor smoking in public buildings or work places) to less-stringent limits that make allowances for bingo halls and bars.

Rod Kuegel, who grows burley tobacco in Daviess County in western Kentucky, said: “The heritage is something of the past. As you take away the tobacco culture, you take away that defensive mode.”

At last count, 7 counties and 13 cities in Kentucky had passed forms of smoking prohibitions broader than just municipal buildings. Last year neighboring Tennessee banned smoking in most indoor public places.

Large numbers of farmers stopped growing the leaf. In a state with historically high smoking rates, coupled with elevated cancer rates, smoke-free legislations are a cost-effective way to improve public health.

Ellen Hahn, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s colleges of nursing and public health said: “Smoke-free laws are a vaccine, protecting people from secondhand smoke.”

Opponents argue that smoking bans hurt business and violate on individual rights.

Roy Trimble said: “The business never recovered, and I closed my Trimble’s Exit 3 Restaurant this summer, putting 16 people out of work. Business dropped by nearly a third once smokers quit stopping by there. My customer base took a big hit when truck drivers pulling off for a meal realized they couldn’t light up. They would get up and leave. They would not even eat what they ordered. Local governments should leave it up to business operators to decide whether to allow smoking. I thought it was a free country.”

Linda Vogelpohl, chairwoman of Northern Kentucky Action, a coalition of health-care groups and residents said: “We’re not saying that people don’t have the right to smoke. That is a right but it’s a choice. It is everyone’s right to breathe clean air. I constantly see the ravages caused by smoking as clinical director at the cancer treatment centers at St. Luke Hospitals in Fort Thomas and Florence. It’s very difficult when I have a patient sit down in front of me with tears in their eyes and say ‘I’ve just been diagnosed with lung cancer; I don’t understand because I never smoked’.”

Jim Gilliece, co-proprietor of Chez Nora, a restaurant and jazz club in Covington, said: “It is one more instance of the government making a decision for us that I believe we’re perfectly capable of making on our own. Many northern Kentucky restaurants already are nonsmoking, and I expect my business will survive, whether smoking is allowed or not. People still go out, so I’m not too concerned that somehow my restaurant will close.”

State Sen. Dan Seum, R-Louisville, said: “I’m considering introducing a bill next year weighing in on the issue. Under the proposal, businesses wanting to allow smoking inside would have to get a state license and post “smoking allowed” signs. Otherwise, it would be implied that smoking would be disallowed. You the consumer would either walk through the door or not.

Bob Davis said: “My Mahogany’s Coffeehouse and Bar in a blue-collar Kenton County neighborhood has been smoke-free since opening about a year ago, despite being in one of the epicenters of smoking. My workers like it that the bar isn’t filled with smoke and so do the musicians who perform. Customers wanting to light up can do so in an outdoor patio. I occasionally lose a customer once they find out smoking is disallowed inside. Most of those people say, ‘Well hell, we’re in Kentucky!’.”